High Modernism and The Infinity of Water: Evaluating Cloud Seeding and Desalination in the Middle East
What is more valuable in the desert: a barrel of oil or a glass of water? The United Arab Emirates (UAE), a young and wealthy nation on the Arabian Peninsula, sits on one of the world's largest oil reserves. While oil has driven the nation’s economic success, making its GDP per capita the 5th highest globally, the UAE faces a stark contrast in its most pressing challenge: water scarcity.
The UAE receives less than 200 mm per year average rainfall, has a very high evaporation rate (2–3 m^3 per year), a low groundwater recharge rate (<4 % of total annual water used) and no reliable, perennial surface water resources. Water scarcity is further exacerbated by exponential population growth, unsustainable consumption, climate change, and weak management institutions and regulations. Together, these factors make the UAE one of the most water stressed countries in the world. The World Resource Institute has ranked the UAE as the 7th most water stressed nation in the world, having “extremely high” water stress (>80% baseline), its most severe classification for water stressed nations.3 Twenty-five other nations have received the same rating, seventeen of which are also located in the Middle East and Northern Africa.
In response, the UAE has invested heavily in technologies like Desalination and Cloud seeding to secure fresh water. However, these solutions, while innovative, come with substantial environmental and socioeconomic costs that are often overlooked. This webpage series will explore how the UAE’s reliance on these techno-solutions reflects a broader issue of water management, environmental sustainability, and high modernism in the region.